Washington Redskins: In defense of Ereck Flowers signing
By Hunter Noll
The Washington Redskins signed free agent offensive tackle Ereck Flowers on Monday. While many will poke fun at the move, there’s a pretty strong defense for giving him a chance.
The Washington Redskins added to their offensive line on Monday by signing free agent offensive tackle Ereck Flowers. This move was met with a lot of backlash from fans on Twitter. That’s not much of a surprise either, as Flowers spent 3.5 seasons of his career with the rival New York Giants. Normally, this wouldn’t be a good reason to bash someone. However, Flowers is a special case, as he’s widely considered a massive bust.
He was openly mocked by fans of the Giants, as well as other NFL teams. That, of course, was doubled by rivals — obviously including fans of the Redskins. Flowers was mocked for being a high draft pick, but struggling mightily in his first few seasons. He was often caught on tape getting beat, blown by and bullied by his assignment. This led to him giving up tons of pressures and penalized often.
This all led to the Giants finally giving up on him in 2018, waiving him midseason. From there, he was picked up by the Jacksonville Jaguars. Things didn’t get much better there. So why exactly should this move be defended? Quite a few reasons actually.
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First off, the Redskins lost Ty Nsekhe. He was the ultimate backup for Washington and deserve his chance to be a starter for the Buffalo Bills. With him gone, the Redskins needed to add depth to their already thin offensive line.
They have a hole at left guard, and Brandon Scherff suffered an injury last season that forced him to miss eight games. Meanwhile, Trent Williams hasn’t appeared in all 16 regular season games since 2013. It’s hard to complain about adding depth.
Then, there’s the fact that he was the ninth overall pick in 2015. The Giants believed in him for a reason — and maybe he simply hasn’t reached his potential yet. That takes me into my next point, which is simply that he’s only 24 years old. Flowers is still extremely young and could still improve vastly in the NFL.
Finally, a one-year deal worth $4 million isn’t going to kill the Redskins. Admittedly, the $4 million seems a little high, but it’s still just a one-year deal. Maybe they try him out at guard and he looks better at that position. Maybe he’s simply used as a backup and impresses whenever he’s given some playing time.
If the deal doesn’t work out, you don’t bring him back in 2020. However, if Flowers improves and finds his groove with the Redskins, they might’ve found their long-term answer guard or as a backup. They’ll now have the inside track to sign him to a new deal, as they were the team to give him another chance in the first place.
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No, Ereck Flowers isn’t the signing fans are going to gush over. His history in the NFL isn’t going to convince you to do so either. It’s not the miserable signing a lot of people are trying to make it out to be. He’s being brought into the Washington Redskins organization without high expectations. Maybe that’s what he needs right now.